There is a need for a slitting apparatus having particular usefulness in the cutting of a glass web or sheet in its wet state before the saturating and/or drying thereof.
A glass web or sheet, conventionally formed, is then usually saturated, dried and cured. Saturated glass sheets cannot be repulped and any trim must be sold as scrap material for inferior products or as pure waste material.
It is altogether obvious that, if dry trimming could be eliminated, significant savings could be achieved, especially inasmuch as the raw material costs are in the area of $0.75/lb. as of this writing, ergo the dictate of a trim apparatus for functioning upon a sheet while in its wet state.
Trimming a sheet made of long fibers, of glass or other synthetic material, must be achieved by means other than by the conventional high pressure needle showers. High pressure water showers do not cut through long fibers and, although the edge or trim can be knocked off, the sheet is not left with a smooth, continuous, straight edge.